Decks, Cubes, and Other Lists

Bard, King of Dale

This is a predominately token go wide strategy with a monarchy sub-theme. In the early game, set up by filling your board with human creature/tokens and ramp with treasure tokens. Then, once the commander hit the field, start refilling your hand with the monarchy while building an ever wider board of tokens until you can overwhelm your opponents. (Cards chosen were based on budget and whether the cards would thematically fit in LOTR universe)

Tom, Bert, and William

Everything is dinner. When your commander dies, he turns to stone. Ygra, Eater of All makes every creature on the battlefield a Food, and Gourmand's Talent does the same to your artifacts. Suddenly Trail of Crumbs, Savvy Hunter, Gyome, Camellia and Killer Service are all happily eating things that were never supposed to be edible. Cauldron Familiar and Witch's Oven are the stewpot. Supper for Spiders scrapes everything that died this turn off the floor and serves it back to you as Food. Tom, Bert, and William are the sac outlet AND the payoff: one mana, eat a creature, draw cards equal to its power. Ygra grows two counters every time a Food hits the graveyard, so the cat you have been fattening all game gets eaten for eight or ten cards. Yargle and Multani is an 18/6 that exists purely to be a very large meal. Psychosis Crawler, Blood Artist and Bastion of Remembrance turn all that gluttony into damage, and Jarad is there if you would rather just throw the leftovers at somebody's face. Best of all: when the trolls die, dawn catches them and they come back as a non-creature artifact — petrified, exactly like the book. The statue keeps right on activating. And with Gourmand's Talent out, the stone trolls are themselves Food. Built around precon price. Bracket 3-ish, no infinite combos, no Game Changers.

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

A dwarf deck and thematic re-telling of There and Back Again. Hobbit only cards - with exception of lands which stay on theme with LOTR copies.

Beorn the Fierce

Bard, King of Dale

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

Tom, Bert, and William

Tom, Bert, and William indifferently oversee a deck all about food and sacrifice. The deck plays well without them, summoning large creatures and padding its life total. Once the Troll Trio arrive, they gobble up your creatures to refill your hand, and you can count on them to stick around, too, thanks to turning to stone (artifact) once the sun comes up (they get removed).

Bifur, Melodic Rider

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

Tom, Bert, and William

Everything is dinner. Ygra, Eater of All makes every creature on the battlefield a Food, and Gourmand's Talent does the same to your artifacts. Suddenly Trail of Crumbs, Savvy Hunter, Gyome, Camellia and Killer Service are all happily eating things that were never supposed to be edible. Cauldron Familiar and Witch's Oven are the stewpot. Supper for Spiders scrapes everything that died this turn off the floor and serves it back to you as Food. Tom, Bert, and William are the sac outlet AND the payoff: one mana, eat a creature, draw cards equal to its power. Ygra grows two counters every time a Food hits the graveyard, so the cat you have been fattening all game gets eaten for eight or ten cards. Yargle and Multani is an 18/6 that exists purely to be a very large meal. Psychosis Crawler, Blood Artist and Bastion of Remembrance turn all that gluttony into damage, and Jarad is there if you would rather just throw the leftovers at somebody's face. Best of all: when the trolls die, dawn catches them and they come back as a non-creature artifact — petrified, exactly like the book. The statue keeps right on activating. And with Gourmand's Talent out, the stone trolls are themselves Food. Built around precon price. Bracket 3-ish, no infinite combos, no Game Changers.

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

Dwarf Precon of Thorin's Company - A Retelling of There and Back Again

Tom, Bert, and William

Cheapest printing according to Archidekt was $115. Put stuff in your graveyard and bring it back! Some needed bomb reprints (Spidersilk Armor anyone???) and even a Spider subtheme if you want to run Shelob as the commander!

Chief of the Wilds

Chief of the Wilds

Swarm the field with wolves and power them up.

The Great Goblin

Bard, King of Dale

Draw cards and generate tokens

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

I built this deck the day before the video upload but this is my take on a hobbit precon

Bard, King of Dale

Thranduil the Strategist

Chief of the Wilds & The Chief Warg

Get wolves out, beef them up, turn them into bears, use Ferocious mechanic, and double battle triggers

Bard, King of Dale

Gandalf, Party Guest

Smaug the Impenetrable

Smaug creates his own horde with this one! Artifacts matter with a villainous Goblins sub-theme, I crafted this deck on my own. I am a relatively new Magic player, with the Secrets of Strixhaven Set being my first forte into this wonderful hobby! Hold onto all of your artifacts and grow your value with this Smaug deck, now just $167! Haha! 67! Sitting at Bracket 2 it is perfect for a precon and, having played this deck in person, I can personally attest to this deck’s playability and level of fun!

Bilbo, Thief in the Night

Adventure is calling! Follow Bilbo from Bag End to the Lonely Mountain, gathering treasures, uncovering secrets, and filling your graveyard along the way. Then send Bilbo back into the fray to reuse the spells and tricks he's left behind. After all, the best adventures are the ones you get to take there and back again... and again.

Gandalf, Party Guest

Gandalf, Party Guest

Hobbit PreCon - Gandalf the Many!

 _____________________________________________________________________ Commander - Gandalf, Party Guest

 ______________________________________________________________________________ Cost - Originally made on Archidekt with cheapest cards (including all Lotr/Hobbit printings) - €239 - $275 I believe this is a prec-con priced deck due to most of the cards inflating the price being from the hobbit set which is still experiencing inflated pre-release pricing. There are also quite a few desperately needed reprints in here! ________________________________________________________________________________ 

Intro -
 Don’t worry friend, Gandalf is here! And so are a bunch of other Gandalfs and some other wizards that are…not Gandalf? 
Alas! Let them into your little hobbit-hovel to have a spell-slinging blast! This deck is all about having the most flashy-splashy fun! You’ll be casting the biggest of spells, taking extra turns or combat phases, drawing many a card and in some cases, even your whole deck to (hopefully) win the game! _____________________ This deck is likely going to be entered here umpteen times but I hope my version sticks out and peeks your interests! On ya go! Read on! :)

 _______________________________________________________________________________ The Theme/Story - I have made a purposeful choice to make this deck without any UB cards other than ones from LotR/Hobbit. I felt this made sense from a theme/story view and also a realistic view due to WizardsOfTheCoast never taking an FF exclusive card (for example) and turning it into a Hobbit/LotR card. ________ 
I have tried to keep the theme of wizards and their stereotypical personalities tightly woven within this deck, tying in both the storytelling aspect of Gandalf and his many roles, whether he is pondering on a lost thought, searching through scrolls and ancient texts or battling mighty foes from the tops of mountains to the fiery chasms below! When I think of wizards, in the context of Magic: The Gathering and Tolkien’s world building or just fantasy in general, one word comes to my mind and that word is ICONIC! 
Therefore you will find a series of magic’s most iconic Instants/Sorceries and even some Enchantments/Creatures as you play this deck which I feel are very fitting with Gandalf and his character. Here is a list of them - 

Lightening Bolt 
______ Ponder 
______ Counterspell ______ Disenchant
 ______ Swords to Plowshares ______ 
Negate
 ______ Omniscience - Only a true Mia like Gandalf could pop off like this!
 Niv Mizzet(s) - I mean he’s pretty much mtg’s Smaug! And ya cant have a wizard without a dragon or in this case, a dragon wizard!

 _____________________ This was definitely something I wanted to do for this deck as in my mind, if Gandalf sat down to play some MTG, he’d be casting these iconic spells and shouting their names out at the top of his lungs and raising his staff toward the ceiling as he does so. 
 I dunno about you, I just love a one worded magic spell! 
There are of course many other spells themed around our wandering wizard throughout the deck, both from The Tales of Middle Earth set and the new Hobbit set! I mean, just look at how cool the Artefact section is! Super wizard themed!!! __________________________________________________________________________ 


Gameplay - So, the key point of this deck is to get as many Legendary Wizards onto our side of the field, utilising the decks draw power and in some cases, tutoring to do so and then casting a plethora of instants or sorceries at our disposal. 
 With our commander, we then hope to change the game state by casting some huge spells before combat and those spells will be for free! 
 The worst case scenario for us would be the possibility of ‘counterspells’ shutting down our huge 5+ mana free spells so I have included many ways to preemptively copy our spells maybe once or twice to assure we have one or more instances of our spells resolving. We also have plenty ways to give all our spells ‘Flash’ to assure those huge sorcery spells can be played at instant speed before combat or whenever we wish! 
 We have also got plenty counter magic of our own to keep our opponents in check and choice removal to deal with any early game threats! I believe this deck will take a little while to set up so being choice with our removal is important!
 I also feel that as soon as this deck starts doing its thing, we have to be prepared to be named... THE THREAT! Therefore the array of cheaper instant spells can come in handy in a tight spot. 
We have many-many-many ways to draw in this deck too and a few scry abilities in creature/land-form to make those draws even more controlled. _____________________________________________________________________________ 

Mana Base - 
The mana base is low for a pre-con but I am hoping with the amount of draw triggers, scry and cheap hand fixing we have, we will be alright. 
 I have included ‘Three Tree City’ as the ‘BIG REPRINT’ card for the mana base as I feel it should be in every typal/tribal deck. Especially this one, the more mana the better! Also you can see it being an easy choice for a middle earth based forest or woodland. 
 Shocklands! Yup, wouldn’t that just be lovely to get those in a pre-con? ____________________________________________________________________________ 
Winning - 
Sealing the game in theory and while goldfishing has been pretty self explanatory, with many combat tricks to tap down all opponents creatures or return them to hand or of course take extra turns/combats and ways to copy mass board state changing effects. We even have a wild combo with casting ‘Enter the Infinite’ (for free) and drawing into ‘Omniscience’. That’s a pretty cool way and very wizardy-way to win with an ol’ Pre-con! 

 ____________________________________________________________________________ Things not included - 
Well there is no Sol Ring here which I was a bit unsure about due to it being in every single pre-con out there but hey, I don’t like it in my own decks and I made this one! If it MUST go in then be my guest, all the more literal power to you, you-you pesky little hobbitses!

 _______________________________________________________________________________ Conclusion -
 So, there we have it! A deck which truly lets its pilot feel like thee wizard! As if you are the real Gandalf who has came up with all these self-titled spells filled with his own favourite moments from his own journeys and own catch phrases! Pretty neat! Hope you like it and if you win or lose, well I bet you looked like a cool wizard doing so! ___________________________________________________________________________ Thanks a lot for this oppurtunity! Oh and a little shameless plug here - My art portfolio - robbiegoldieart.com 
_________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Robbie Goldie

Radagast of Rhosgobel

Use bears, birds, bees and beasts to turn the enemies of middle earth to dust !

The Great Goblin

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

A deck made using 100% Hobbit and LOTR cards, meant to focus on Thorin's company. A couple cards with unique dwarvish printing (e.g., arcane signet, treasure vault) use generic affordable replacements. Affordability can be improved by dropping Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver for a different piece of equipment from the LOTR set

Sauron, the Dark Lord

Sauron, the Dark Lord commands this Grixis army through fear, manipulation, and sheer overwhelming force. Every spell your opponents cast feeds your growing Orc Army, while the Ring tempts your forces toward greater power. Once Mordor's army is large enough, send it into battle and let the Shadow consume the battlefield. Alongside Sauron stand some of Middle-earth's most infamous figures—including Sauron, the Lidless Eye, Gothmog, Saruman, The Mouth of Sauron, and the Nazgûl. But even the forces of good have found their way into the deck, with Gandalf, Shadow's Foe bringing a strange and powerful alliance to Sauron's cause. The deck focuses on Orc Army growth, the Ring tempts you mechanic, graveyard recursion, stealing opposing creatures, and value-driven Grixis interaction. Rather than relying on expensive fast mana or competitive combo strategies, it aims to create memorable Commander games where your army slowly grows into an unstoppable threat.

The Great Goblin

Deck price estimate is $90-100 as of my Archidekt list https://archidekt.com/decks/25205239/great_gobbo A Goblin/Orc deck focusing on Burn, Counters, Amass, with some sprinkled in reanimation to combo with some staple burn. A couple of 3-4 card infinite combos involved too, which pre-cons have recently started adding.

Thranduil, the Elvenking

Chief of the Wilds

Precon Low Bracket 3 *No GC/No Infin* Wolf/Warg tribal built around Chief of the Wilds. The deck leans into Wolves with useful triggered abilities that Chief can double, while still keeping a strong Hobbit/Tolkien feel with cards like The Chief Warg, Chief Warg's Company, Nighthowl Pursuer, Wargling, and Head of the Hunt. The game plan is pretty straightforward: build up the pack, get Chief out, take advantage of the extra triggers, and eventually win through a huge Chief or a wide board of Wolves with cards like Beastmaster Ascension and Overwhelming Stampede.

Beorn the Fierce

The Great Goblin

Goblin/Orc Amass, Burn, and Reanimation deck with some counter synergies. Includes a couple of 3-4 card combos, as recent commander precons have had a small number of infinite loops.

Bard, King of Dale

Bard, King of Dale

Fend off Dragons (and other fantasy nasties) with the OG archer hero, Bard! Draw cards to draw cards, and get even more human interest out of Bard's doubling effects, with a little assist from the Monarch.

Chief of the Wilds

Be the Chief of an ever growing pack of Wolves, that grow large and wide.

Smaug the Impenetrable

Thranduil, the Elvenking

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

Beorn the Fierce

Thranduil, the Elvenking

This Thranduil, the Elvenking deck is a flavorful Mirkwood Elf deck that fills your graveyard with useful Elves so Thranduil can reuse their activated abilities while legendary Elves keep your hand moving. You build up a Woodland Realm board of Elves and other Hobbit creatures, generate steady value, and eventually overwhelm the table through creature combat.

Thranduil, the Elvenking

A precon level take on Thranduil, optimized for an out of the box experience, tuned down from my own personal version which has the Devoted Druid infinite and Game Changers, as well as a more expensive mana base

Morophon, the Boundless

Marvel and Spider-Man deck centered around Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin, and the many villains connected to him.

Beorn the Fierce

Smaug, Wicked Worm

Smaug the Magnificent

Thought it would be interesting to make a deck around hoarding Treasure, spending them at the last moment in case someone tries to blow them up and relying on them being the sole goal of the deck, even if that means its fragile like the great Smaug himself

Bilbo, Unexpected Adventurer